WASHINGTON / April 5, 2011 – The former lead investigator of the high-profile Natalee Holloway case is now calling for Maine prosecutors to drop their 4-year-old case against Vladek Filler. TJ Ward, a lead investigator in the Natalee Holloway case in Aruba, has concluded the original allegation was a “fabrication” and believes continued prosecution of the innocent man would be “malicious.”

In a recent radio interview, Ward ticked off a long list of irregularities in the case involving an allegation of rape that was made in the course of a marital break-up. The accuser had a well-known psychiatric condition. She refused the rape kit that the doctor offered to use. During the trial, the prosecutor provided no medical or forensic evidence.

Worse, the prosecutor wrongfully blocked the introduction of evidence that would have served to prove Mr. Filler’s innocence. The exculpatory evidence included evidence that the accuser was a known child abuser, that she had a record of prior criminal charges, and that the defendant had requested a restraining order to protect him and his children from her abusive behavior.

Ward also highlighted that the state Department of Health and Human Services had sided with Mr. Filler by recommending he continue to have custody of the children. But Kellett sought to bar that fact, as well.

“It’s just a shame that this gentlemen…has come here to the United States, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, and is experiencing this type of behavior, when he’s been exonerated, when he’s not guilty with what he’s charged with, and they’re continuing to hound this man and run him into the ground.”

The State of Maine’s prosecution of Vladek Filler has attracted international media attention. In December, the state Supreme Court criticized assistant district attorney Mary Kellett for prosecutorial misconduct and ordered a retrial. The case is scheduled to be heard May 23-26 in Ellsworth Superior Court, Maine.